Ideals on a belt system

[funnytiger]

Basicly belt or not, each student is at a level that may be looked up to or down on by others and dealing with the fact that you may not be a high a rank as someone else is part of the total training and experience of what life is realy like. In the world there will be people that are better than you at things and some that are not as good as you at other things. some people will hold posistions that they may not realy deserve. But such is life. And Karate Do or any art that teaches "the way" should be teaching this as well as how to defend ones self.

This is pretty much stating the obvious. Life may be like that and we have no choice but to live life. However, we do have a choice in taking a particular MA. And the corruption that may be within any school including people holding "belts" they don't deserve can be avoided by finding another school. But as it was stated previously, its about the knowledge and not the belt. Unfortunately, not everyone knows/heeds that and will act as if they are superior based solely on the color of their belt.

If the art is only teaching one to fight then the outcome of a fight can be used to determine the pecking order.

I don't think I've ever heard of an MA where the "pecking order" was determined by a fight, but its an interesting concept! lol It goes without saying that being a part of an MA club is more than just about fighting. Or at least in my mind it is.

- ft